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Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on FacebookFormer President Bill Clinton – stumping for wife Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia today – shouted down Black Lives Matter protesters in the crowd.
'You are defending the people who killed the lives you say matter,' Clinton told those yelling at him from the crowd.
The former president has been forced to defend his 1994 crime bill, which many point to the start of mass incarceration of black men in the United States, a criminal justice issue that politicians on both sides of the aisle have said they'd like to reform.
Former President Bill Clinton engaged in a testy back-and-forth exchange with Black Lives Matter protesters who blame he and his wife Hillary for mass incarceration of black men in the United States
Former President Bill Clinton touted some of the statistics that went alongside his 1994 crime bill, suggesting that the legislation - which incarcerated many black men - also saved the lives of African-American children
Former President Bill Clinton laid out a number of counterpoints - including reminding the audience that Hillary was first lady at the time and didn't vote for the controversial crime bill
Black Lives Matter protesters have also taken on this mantle, along with the issue of police violence against unarmed black citizens.
While in the past, former President Clinton has suggested his crime bill went too far, today he defended it aggressively and publicly after being periodically interrupted in Pennsylvania, which holds a primary later this month.
'Can I answer?' he said, stopping his stump speech because of shouts. 'Now, you see, here's the thing, I like protesters, but the ones who won't let you answer are afraid of the truth. That's the simple rule.'
Clinton noted that his crime bill had had a lot of support within the African-American community.
'I talk to a lot of African-American groups, they thought black lives matter, they said "take this bill because our kids are being shot in the street by gangs,"' he said.
'Because of that bill we had a 25 year low in crime, a 33 year low in the murder rate and listen to this because of that and the background check law, we had a 46 year low in the deaths of people by gun violence and who do you think those lives were? That mattered,' he continued.
Protester Rosco Farmer is corralled in the back of the auditorium by civil affairs officers near the end of Bill Clinton's rally for his wife
'Can I answer?' Bill Clinton said, stopping his stump speech because of shouts, and then rebutting Black Lives Matter protesters'Whose lives were saved that mattered?' he added.
That explanation wasn't enough to satisfy the protesters who continued to interrupt the Democrat from the crowd.
'Now you're screaming, so let's do another one,' Clinton said.
'I don't know how you would characterize the gang leaders who got 13-year-old kids hopped up on crack and sent them out onto the street to murder other African-American children,' he noted.
'Maybe you thought they were good citizens,' he added, before railing against the hypocrisy he suggested that the protesters represented.
He punctuated his throaty response with, 'tell the truth!'
Throughout the course of the back-and-forth, Clinton also noted that his record and his wife's should not be looked at the same.
'Hillary didn't vote for that bill because she wasn't in the Senate,' Clinton stated.
'She was spending her time trying to get healthcare for poor kids,' he continued.
'Who were they?' he asked aloud. 'And their lives matter.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3529023/Bill-Clinton-s-furious-tirade-Black-Lives-Matters-hecklers-defending-people-killed-lives-say-matter.html#ixzz45D09AAnj
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